Shouldering the Debt

Well, I received some good news yesterday afternoon about the car accident we were in.  The other guy's insurance company is going to reimburse me for the copays I paid out to my doctor for my shoulder injury but - here's the good part - they also insist on paying me something for my "pain and suffering"!  From what I understand, the whole idea is to pay me something so that I won't come back and sue them for major damages later.  I'm not really the type to sue (I've been sued before - and cleared - however, it was no fun to go through.) so I wasn't even thinking about the possibility.  They are offering me $2,500 plus my $60 copays and a $500 'bonus' in case I need any other treatments for a total of $3,060.

If the Federal tax return pays off our target debt (currently Bank of America Visa), the next one on the chopping block is $3,600 to Lowes Home Improvement which is Aaron's barn materials.  That card is on an 18 month special 0% financing plan, however it is our next smallest debt and must die. 

I think it's kind of ironic that my shoulder pain will almost completely pay off Aaron's barn, which is coming along nicely I might add.  :) 

Once the barn is finished, I get the shed (which is attached to The Chick Inn) all to myself, so I am profiting from the barn as well.  I can't wait to clean the shed out and set up a cute space for me and the chickens!  My favorite part of the shed is that there is a window to the coop from inside the shed so I can just open the window and have feathered friends join me inside.  :)  I'm going to paint it up cute and add a fabric skirt to the workbench so I can hide uglies behind it.  I've got big plans for that little shed!  (I've even dreamed of making it a sewing studio.  LOL!  It's 8 feet by 8 feet! That would be one tiny sewing space.....but I'd take it!)  :)

Here's a picture of the barn in progress. Kip has been a great helper with the construction process. He is about fearless on the roof which makes this mama hen a nervous Nelly!  :)

Princess Parking Only

Okay, so you know by now that I love finding goodies at the Goodwill.  I just couldn't leave this sign there!  As soon as I saw it I thought it would be so funny above the chick's roost.  What do you think?  :0)

The Coop; aka The Chick Inn

You all know that we adopted six baby chicks last month.  We have been raising them for the past five weeks and have also been working on planning & building their coop.  Last week my awesome handy husband, Aaron, put the finishing touches on their new home, now dubbed "The Chick Inn".  I named the coop after a drive-in restaurant in my hometown of Ypsilanti, Michigan - they're the home of the Paul Bunyan burger.  :0)  Anyway, without further ado, here is the coop:

Isn't it cute?!  We converted an old lean-to that was built off of the shed.  (You can see the before picture in my previous post.)  My dad gave us the old window panes which are hinged at the top so the chicks can have ventilation and fresh air on hot summer days.  Aaron built the door using 2 by 4s and we recycled an old picket fence for the bottom of it.


Under the front window is a trap door that we call the "egg drop shop".  When you open it up, you have access to the chick's nesting boxes on the inside.  Here is the view from inside the coop:

(We put golf balls in each of the nests as a clue to tell the biddies where their future eggs will go.  It's an old trick we read about online.)










Aaron made them a roosting bar for inside the coop.  It is a 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch square dowel (cut from a 2 by 4) and then he trimmed the corners to 90 degrees and sanded all the edges.  Chickens in the wild will roost off the ground, usually in lower tree branches, in order to stay safe from predators.  As soon as we put them up on their roost, they settled right in - some even went to sleep!  :0)

 Here is a close up of the end of the roosting bar.

 Next up, we have to build the biddies an outside pen.  They are in the coop during the day time, but we are still bringing them in at night to sleep under the heat lamp.  The past two nights they have not slept directly under the lamp, so I think they are now old enough to sleep in the coop.  I am crazy, but before I let them sleep in the coop at night, I want to get a second-hand baby monitor so that I can keep an "ear" on them.  They are very quiet at night, but will start screaming if a predator comes in their coop.  I think it's pretty safe, but - like I said - I'm crazy and don't want to lose any of them.  :0) 

Well, that is all for now.  We have added some chicken coop art to the Chick Inn and I will post new pictures of that soon.  Stay tuned!

Chick Update

Okay, okay...I'm so sorry!  It's been about three weeks since I lasted posted and I've got folks wondering where in the world I am.  Well, I've been up to my eyeballs in baby chicks - literally!  Last week, during a great photo op, my baby chick, Sunshine, was on my shoulder.  Just as my son, Jake, snapped the photo, she pecked my pupil.  That's right (cringe) my pupil!  O-U-C-H!  (Here is the not-so-flattering photo of the incident, but I just had to share it.)

I was half blinded in my left eye for the rest of the evening; woke up the next morning with my eye crusted over, but - once cleaned - was able to see out of it.  I kept sunglasses on for a good day & a half because I had a lot of pain when my eye tried to dilate.  Anyway, I am now recovered and my eye is much better.  However, we have been SUPER busy trying to get the chick's coop (now dubbed The Chick Inn) built so that they can move into it!

I will have pictures of it up soon, but for now, here is a "before" shot of where we are building the coop:

Just beyond our kitchen garden is a small 8 foot by 8 foot potting shed with a lean-to roughly the same size.  We decided to enclose the lean to for our chicken coop.  Aaron (my husband) is the handsome guy in the photo - he is probably standing there wondering just what in the world he's agreed to.  :0)  I'll post pictures soon of the new Chick Inn, so check back in a day or so!